Is it Iskra? Is it Welta? Is it.....

LOL ! That's surely something you stirred up !

Never knew that Welta made a rollfilm camera with vertical struts !

Looks to me like a disguised Iskra body with a Welta shutter/frontlens assy.
The filmchamber picture surely lets us see a modified Iskra were somebody added two mask-halves. Probably to shoot 6x4,5.

The same for the filmpressure-plate. Two holes for red windows were
added.

The top-plate doesn't look like coming from an Iskra. Suspect this is from
another camera. The Iskra has its filmframecounter in another spot.
 
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Also interesting is the filmcounter on the top-plate. Wonder from which camera it was borrowed. Could it come from a genuine Welta ? Although i have a postwar Welta Weltax i'm by no means an expert on Welta.

Also noticable is the top-cover which has 2 distinctive steps.

btw just downloaded the pictures before this contraption goes into oblivion 😉
 
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chippy said:
yeah,

no, i dont know of any 120 welta with film counter such as that, at a glance it does look like a film counter from a 35mm Welta, something different i think though..
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I think you could be right with your assumption about a 35mm camera. Also the winderknob looks smaller then one would expect from a medium format camera.

The camera is sold from the Ukraine so it would be likely to asume that it was made from camera-parts available over there. The Iskra body is for sure and almost certainly its rangefinder is hiding under the topcover. The Welta lens/shutter and scrypt-label also (but most probably from a pre-WWII camera). Maybe there are even parts of a third camera (the suspected 35mm).
 
Always factor in the cost of a CLA, and insist on return privileges. Lack of original box and papers a possible red flag. Replacement coverings available from camerafurs.com.
 
chippy said:
in my dreams for lack of a better answer, i am going with some sort of prototype or some weirdo $%^ that should not have touched a camera..
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I don't believe in a prototype - I've never encountered a fully designed folder prototype of that vintage. Prototypes from that age were usually strictly technical and did not extend to brand name face-plates unless the latter happened to be already attached to whatever pre-existing base model the prototype was built around, and there is no series model with such a face.

Assuming that the perpetrator did not butcher two Welta cameras to enhance his Iskra, and considering that a pre fifties (cm scale) Meritar could only come from a Reflecta (where it ought to be unit focusing - is that strange ring a focusing helicoid transplanted from some Soviet camera?) or Perle (cell-focusing), we only have to hunt down the Perle or Reflecta/Reflekta with that odd "Welta" engraved plate now glued onto the camera head. The engraving may be elsewhere on the original camera - it looks more like a base board or TLR side cover than a front plate.
 
Just wondered about the lens. It's a Ludwig Meritar, probably a 1:3,5 75mm. The serial number is fairly low 659917. Meritar's were the cheaper lenses which, except by Welta, also were used by other DDR-works (i.e. Beier). I couldn't find a pre-WWII Ludwig Meritar though.

Would be nice to have a source for the Meritar serial numbers. My first guess is somewhere between 1947 and 1950.

The font used for the "welta"-plate looks very old indeed. One should expect that kind of font on cameras much older then the late 1930's.
Maybe something from an old Welta plate camera ?
 
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hanskerensky said:
Would be nice to have a source for the Meritar serial numbers. My first guess is somewhere between 1947 and 1950.
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The LVM has the first Meritars at 620000, presumably immediately post war. The local length on the lens inscription is barely visible, but looks like 7,5cm as well, which would suggest a pre- or immediate post-war lens.
 
chippy said:
it doesnt appear to be something someone has put together to make buck, so no icentive there, it does have some oddities, but it does have some decent parts in it too, something worth looking at
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Don't underestimate the prestige factor a western camera had in the 50's or 60's SU, when something the scale of a Rolleiflex or Leica was pretty much reserved for party top ranks or top professionals.
 
chippy said:
lol, you dont know what your missing
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I think there may be more than two cameras involved here. Did anyone notice that the original hole in the leatherette on the body (Iskra, with the bezel) doesn't line up with the red window? Not sure what's going on there. Could it be that the film door comes from yet another camera?
 
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chippy said:
more than two cameras for sure Charles, lens from a reflecta tlr, shutter from 35mm welta. I had a bit of a browse around, but the top i still cant find, two days later, my head still hurts from the red wine the night/morning of this welta thread turning up! hence my over jubilation at this welta/iskra hot rod at the time. gota give this guy some some credit for imagination, not ness workmanship or aesthetics 😛

could be the top is a formation of his own work and covered in leatherette, its surface looks a little undulating (even taking into account the different levels) the eye piece is quite large too

looking for a panadol now 😎
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I'm betting that the leatherette on top is covering Bondo or something similar. There's no other reason for it to be there, that I can think of (it sure isn't for looks). The plate on the top that says Welta could have come from anywhere. It was probably cut off of yet another camera. If it all works, whoever did this was a genius -- unless it all came from working cameras, in which case he's the worst kind of vandal.
 
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